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Car Wars: Arena Info, The Dome

The Dome (PR .5)

The Dome was called the Uni Dome during the heyday of college sports. When college sports were abandoned in the early 21st century due to the danger of transporting teams and the sagging TV ratings because of the non-violent nature of collegiate sports; the Uni Dome sat unused for years. When the college began fortifying itself following the grain blight, the dome was used as an ammunition dump due to its defensible nature.

After the legalization of Autodueling in Iowa following the coup which removed the Amanites from power, The Board of Regents voted to turn the Uni Dome into a dueling arena.

Arena Notes:
The enclosure of the field is 15’ high and has 75dp (being reinforced permacrete) The stands look down on the field and can only be targeted by a universal turret. Firing into the stands is cause for disqualification from your event and will subject the duelist to a vengeful mob after (s)he exits the arena

Arena Ball: AB is played using the old football field. Similar to soccer and polo, only using vehicles instead of horses, each team tries to get the ball across the opponent’s goal line. No dropped weapons are allowed and no weapons fire is allowed in the first quarter.

Four vehicles per team attempt to move the ball by colliding with it. One vehicle is the goalie and is not allowed to maneuver beyond the half-way point of the field. One point is scored every time the ball crosses the goal line.

The Ball: is a resilient rubber sphere weighing 300lbs and is 7.5’ (1/2” in CWC scale). Firing line of sight cannot be traced through the ball.

Because of its resiliency, collisions with the ball do not affect a vehicle’s speed or direction. The ball does no damage to a colliding vehicle, and it is also invulnerable to collision damage. However, it can be damaged by weapons fire; the ball has 6 DP and is targeted normally, but weapons fire will not cause it to move or change direction. Assume it’s been coated with a fireproof paint, so it will not burn. Also, destruction of the ball is grounds for disqualification; a new ball is introduced into play after the disqualified duellist leaves the arena. Teams cannot replace a disqualified duelist.

Moving the Ball
Duellists move the ball by colliding with it in their vehicles. The collision procedure works differently from the usual method, though, because a ball can travel in any direction and change directions much more easily than a vehicle. Here’s how to figure the ball’s new direction after it collides with a vehicle:

The ball’s direction and velocity depend not only on its previous movement, but also on the speed and direction of the car that hits it. The key idea in accounting for all this is to use the squares of the map-grid. Do it in three steps:
(1) The vehicle that hits the ball is called the “colliding vehicle.” Trace a line straight out from the front of the colliding vehicle’s counter in the direction it was moving before it hit the ball. Extend the line one square (1/4″) for each 10 mph of the colliding vehicle’s speed (round up). Remember where the line ends.
(2) From where the line ends in step 1, trace a straight line parallel to the path of the ball before it was hit, going in the same direction as the ball was. Extend the line one square for each 10 mph the ball was moving before being hit, just as in step 1. Remember where this second line ends – it’s called the “end-point.”
(3) Now trace a straight line from the point of collision between ball and car to the end-point in step 2. This is the ball’s new direction. Also, the length of this new line of direction tells how fast the ball is going: For each square (1/4″) of length, the ball moves 10 mph. If the line is three squares long, the ball’s new speed is 30 mph; five squares, 50 mph, and so on. Round fractions to the nearest 10 mph.
For example, look at the diagram. The colliding vehicle is moving 90 mph north, and the ball is moving 20 mph southwest. From the collision point “A,” count north 9 squares (one square per 10 mph for 90 mph). Now count southwest 2 squares (for the ball’s 20 mph speed and southwest direction). The end-point is labelled “B.” Trace a line from “A” to “B.” The line’s direction is the ball’s new direction, and the line’s length of 7 squares tells you the ball’s speed – 70 mph. To keep track of the ball’s direction, draw an arrow on the counter representing the ball, and keep it pointed the right way.
The ball slows down as it rolls. It decelerates 2.5 mph at the beginning of each turn.

Teams are limited $100,000 for their five vehicles. Body styles mid-size and smaller. Games are only permitted between vehicles of like size.

Wrecks are left on the field until the game is done. The referee determines the length of the game (ie first goal wins, 4 quarters of pre-determined time, etc)

Tag Night: TN is played on the Track and Field floor. 2 contestants at a time compete in an elimination bracket. You lose if you are tagged twice or are destroyed. You are considered tagged when you are hit by the opposing vehicle.

One competitor enters from each gate (see arena). Each competitor tries to either ram his opponent twice or destroy his opponent. The middle of the TF floor is littered with mines and spikes to discourage players from cutting across the middle.

Radio Control Night: The University’s R&D department is trying to perfect remotely controlled vehicles to use as escorts to their transportation department. Four identical cars are deployed on the field. The duelists are in mock-ups of the cockpit away from the arena floor. Combat is as normal but all maneuvers and targeting at -3.

Collegiate Non-lethal Night: The University misses the big bucks that were generated through ticket sales from the football program. Network TV won’t pay for airing non-lethal football, basketball, baseball or any of the other staples of 20th century college sports. Colleges, unwilling to pay for Gold Cross coverage of their students, developed systems for non-lethal dueling. UNI has a college dueling team and is a member of the Big Midwest conference, or Big M as it is customarily called. Iowa, Iowa State, Wisconsin, Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, SMSU, Northwestern and Purdue are all members. The Big Midwest conference sanctions all non-lethal forms of dueling. In non-lethal duels all dropped weapons except mines, explosives or flaming are legal, all weaponry is loaded with paint pellets and do no damage to vehicles. Armor is considered destroyed when the number of paint hits equals the number of points of armor.

The vehicle is considered disabled when 3 more additional hits are taken on any side where the armor is “destroyed”

Justice Night: Campus Security is the police force for Uni. This is something of a misnomer as the security force is better trained and equipped than the average police department. Rather than spend money on feeding and housing prisoners, Campus Security takes all law breakers to the arena on Saturday night. Each prisoner gets one motorcycle from the impound yard. Once the prisoners have their bikes and each has a full load of ammo the prisoners enter the arena one from each corner (4 prisoners / duel). All duels are to the death, no surrendering is allowed. If the survivor’s bike is destroyed (s)he is given another from the impound yard. The survivor has 30 minutes to strip ammo and supplies from the kills before the next set of four emerge. Destroyed bikes are left on the arena floor as obstacles for the next round. The survivors from each of the first rounds then battle, continuing on until only one prisoner is left. The last survivor is given 30 minutes to clear out of the arena with the bike.

There are no judges in Uni. There are no lawyers. All violations of the law are treated equally from vandalism to drug trafficking (murder is difficult to prosecute as the survivor can always claim it was a duel). Given the fact that Campus Security is wont to believe that out-of-towners are at fault, visitors will need to make sure they violate no local ordinances while in town.

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Just seeing it there in the title makes me want to play it again so bad. Had the first little plastic box back in the day, but now all I’ve got is a handful of the crummy little “you don’t mind destroying the book to play?” volumes.

I had 90% of the Car Wars line still in decent shape when Mrs VS and I got married. The apartment where we were living had a flooded basement and everything that was in storage got destroyed (guess where my CW stuff was).

I spent a small fortune re-acquiring my collection on Ebay. I had described the game to PITs #2 & #3. Thier resopnse was “Cool, can we play?”.